Tag Archives: Electric Utility Commission

After weathering an erratic Electric Reliability Council of Texas market this summer, Austin Energy finished the year in a financially stable position with extra revenue that will be passed on to the public in the coming year.According to Mark Dombroski,…

It has been over a year since the water bill saga first made headlines in Austin. However, only now are city utilities releasing a post-mortem report designed to help them avoid a similar situation in the future.While the report that…

The big conundrum facing energy utilities today is how to balance supply and demand for every second of every day. Although there are debates around the subject, the answer, albeit simple, seems to lie with storage.In the Austin Energy Resource,…

Almost five years ago, Council recommended that Austin Energy retire its portion of the Fayette Power Plant, which is run on coal, by 2022. Despite intense pressure from environmentalists to move that date up, the city utility is sticking to…

Soon Austin may have as many electric charging stations as gas stations.Currently, city code does not allow for the resale of city energy by third-party entities. However, the code was written before there was any inkling that electric vehicles would…

The wounds that last fall’s water bill catastrophe left behind had the potential to open up once again as Austin Energy reviewed its customer service ratings and presented the findings at the July 16 meeting of the Electric Utility Commission.“Didn’t we…

For three years, the Electric Utility Commission has not received an annual performance report from Austin Energy. Concerned about the lack of the familiar financial and operational reporting format, Commissioner Michael Osborne has repeatedly discussed its merits and requested its…

Thanks to the city’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050 and Austin Energy’s commitment to adding 330 plug-in electric vehicles by 2020, Travis County recently passed Harris and Dallas counties and now has more electric vehicles than either. Now…

After clamoring from the public and a push from the Electric Utility Commission last month to have Austin Energy come back with the scopes of work for the list of required studies included in City Council’s ambitious renewable energy plan,…

It’s been nine months since City Council passed its ambitious renewable energy plan that requires Austin Energy to push to have 65 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2027 and to create models that would show what…

Austin Energy hit the nail on the head in the second quarter with its actual financial expenditures and income tracking almost exactly to the numbers that it forecast.Even with eight out of 10 City Council districts using below the system…

City jobs are notorious for having a prolonged hiring process. However, at Austin Energy, the process has become excruciatingly long, even by its own standards, and it’s starting to have repercussions.At the April 16 Electric Utility Commission meeting, Mark Dombroski, who…

At 6:30 p.m. on April 16, Paul Vasquez, the superintendent of system operations at Austin Energy, announced at the Electric Utility Commission meeting that Austin Energy’s last employee had returned from the disaster reparation efforts that Austin had participated in…

Several years ago, Austin Energy found itself “over a barrel” due to an underbid and underdelivered contract awarded to IBM to create new system software that would bridge Austin Energy’s meters and its billing system. Now one member of the…

After months of investigation, Austin Water and Austin Energy have an answer for the unusual spikes that Austinites saw in their water bills last September.Although Austin Water responded and changed its meter-reading contractor after the rash of misreads came to…

For several years, water bills have been mysteriously spiking and leaving homeowners clutching their wallets and demanding answers. However, even when the public came en masse to plead that the Electric Utility Commission demand answers from city staff after the…

Austin has a herculean trial ahead of itself as it tries to reach 65 percent renewable energy by 2027. Thankfully, one new proposed project may make that goal achievable.Despite making up only 4 percent of the Electric Reliability Council of…

After 40 years of fighting for consumers and small businesses on Austin’s Electric Utility Commission, Shudde Fath this week announced her resignation.Fath, who is often referred to as the grande dame of Austin’s environmental movement, is 101 years old and…

Despite a rapidly rising population, Austin’s air is significantly less polluted than it was 20 years ago.In a presentation to the Electric Utility Commission on Monday, Andrew Hoekzema, director of regional services at the Capital Area Council of Governments, said…

Judge judging the judge… It seems not everyone is a fan of County Judge Sarah Eckhardt’s iron-fisted management of Travis County Commissioners Court meetings. Her refusal last week to allow Commissioner Jeff Travillion to interject a question in the middle…

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